15 Soul-Searching Questions from George Whitefield

Dr. Steven J. Lawson’s The Evangelistic Zeal of George Whitefieldis a concise and thorough treatment on the life of a captivating man of God. I’m about two-thirds through this biography and cannot put it down. If it weren’t for the need to sleep, I might have finished it last night.

On page 36 Lawson shares fifteen questions that were used by the great Whitefield for self-examination and spiritual discipline—much like Jonathan Edwards’ 70 Resolutions:1

Have I…

(1) Been fervent in private prayer?
(2) Used stated hours of prayer?
(3) Used prayer every hour?
(4) After or before every deliberate conversation or action, considered how it might tend to God’s glory
(5) After any pleasure, immediately given thanks?
(6) Planned business for the day?
(7) Been simple and recollected in everything?
(8) Been zealous in undertaking and active in doing what good I could?
(9) Been meek, cheerful, affable in everything I said or did?
(10) Been proud, vain, unchaste, or enviable of others?
(11) Recollected in eating and drinking? Thankful? Temperate in sleep?
(12) Taken time for giving thanks according to [William] Law’s rules?
(13) Been diligent in studies?
(14) Thought or spoken unkindly of anyone?
(15) Confessed all sins?

If you had to choose just one from Whitefield’s list to improve upon today which would it be?